Cultural eating habits - tell us about yours

This thread is fascinating, and now I'm hungry!!

Midwest US here...

Weekday Breakfast: Oatmeal or cereal
Weekend breakfast: Pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage

Weekday lunch: Soup, sandwich, frozen meal, fast food burger and fries
Weekend lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches/burgers

Weekday Dinner: Chicken or fish with a carb and a veggie (steamed)
Weekend dinner: Same as weekday, but in larger portions and with beer!

You're missing the casseroles

I'm from Missouri so not Southern or Northern...but I can definitely relate to the attitude about food! Very similar here.

And ketchup is a big thing in my circle of family/friends as well. They put it on meat, eggs, slather it on burgers and even some sandwiches. I am not a huge ketchup fan but I do actually love it in my brown bean "soup" and on green beans.

I got used to ketchup on eggs while in the Navy (powdered scrambled eggs are disgusting- anything to hide the taste) but can NOT get over ketchup on steak. Whenever I'm at a nice steak house and I see someone dipping their $30 steak in ketchup, I'm softly screaming "Noooooooooo!" in anguish inside my head.

I grew up in Maryland - in the DC/NoVA Metro Area and meals were pretty simple:

Weekday Breakfast: Cold Cereal with Milk
Weekday Lunch: Sandwich (generally PB&J on white bread), a cookie, and milk from a carton
Weekday Dinner: Whatever Mom could throw together in less than 30 mins - usually fish sticks w/fries, Hamburger Helper, the list goes on and on of horrible foods

Weekend Breakfast: Sat more Cold Cereal with Milk or toast instead if we wanted to make it ourselves
Weekend Lunch: Grab & Go, more sandwiches and snacks
Weekend Dinners: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, etc.

Holidays were when Mom actually cooked a decent meal - dessert & soda's only came during those holidays; instead Lipton Tea Mix, Milk and Kool-Aid were staples in our house for drinking.

Now as an adult I live in Southeastern NC and while the culture is vastly different in terms of food I've brought a lot of my childhood foods with me my kids get either Cold Cereal w/Milk, A frozen Aunt Jemima Breakfast, Pop Tarts or Toast w/Peanut Butter on it, while I east Oatmeal during the week and scrambled egg whites w/wheat toast on the weekends. The kids will sometimes request pancakes, waffles, or eggs for weekend breakfast and I'll oblige.

Weekday Lunches consist of a sandwich for the kids w/a snack (usually cookies, chips, popcorn or pretzels) and a fruit w/a Juice Box; my lunch varies day to day but is usually a sandwich, salad, fruit, pita chips w/hummus, and more fruit w/Water

Weekend Lunch is usually for them leftover Pizza from Friday night, or something out of can, or even a Kid Cuisine Meal - while I'll have a 1/2 Ham & Cheese Sandwich with Salad and Fruit or Pita Chips/Hummus and Fruit.

Weekday Dinners are no different than our weekend dinners - just that I go for the simpler versions during the week, usually a protein, a starch, a veggie/fruit (depending on the protein) and a bread. Sometimes I'll even make breakfast foods for dinner (waffles, pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc.)

A hodge podge of foods honestly

Not sure if I missed it, but I figured I'd throw in some Salvadorean culture

Breakfast: Eggs, refried beans, fried plantain, crema, hard cheese and fresh corn tortillas.... COFFEE (all day everyday)!!!

Lunch: Usually soup (fish soup, beef bone soup) and corn tortillas

Dinner: Heavy stuff-- Pupusas, tamales, rice and beans, always crema and hard cheese

And some lovely sweet breads to dip in coffee are always a must!

This isn't an everyday thing for us since we live in Canada, but I can say this would be a traditional day of nomminess if I am visiting my mom's place!

I grew up in Texas and one thing I miss the most is frito pie :brokenheart:

Not sure if I missed it, but I figured I'd throw in some Salvadorean culture

Breakfast: Eggs, refried beans, fried plantain, crema, hard cheese and fresh corn tortillas.... COFFEE (all day everyday)!!!

Lunch: Usually soup (fish soup, beef bone soup) and corn tortillas

Dinner: Heavy stuff-- Pupusas, tamales, rice and beans, always crema and hard cheese

And some lovely sweet breads to dip in coffee are always a must!

This isn't an everyday thing for us since we live in Canada, but I can say this would be a traditional day of nomminess if I am visiting my mom's place!

I grew up in Texas and one thing I miss the most is frito pie :brokenheart:

Frito pie! That is a very BIG thing in my area (Joplin, Missouri) as is "spaghetti red" (spaghetti with a certain type of chili on top which is somewhat watery with very finely ground meat).

Love this thread!

I'm from France - Paris suburbs.

Breakfast was typically croissants, cereal, or toast with jam (although my brother got a nutella sandwich every morning for years). Sometimes eggs.
No morning snack, although a lot of people I worked with would have coffee and a croissant mid morning.
Lunch - if in a rush, a baguette sandwich, otherwise it's pretty much a real meal - meat, veggies, some carbs etc. And cheese and dessert of course. I don't know anyone who's ever packed their lunch. A lot of workplaces have cafeterias and otherwise smaller companies give people meal coupon so they eat for free at local restaurants.
Goûter at 4pm - usually 'biscuits' (cookies), or puddings/yogurt or more croissants (most adults don't eat that meal as far as I know).
Apéritif - around 7pm, when you have guests - cocktails and nuts, pretzels, goldfish and other salty snacks
Dinner at 8pm - same as lunch

But I haven't lived there for 12 years so who knows what they're doing now. The food itself was not that different, except I ate a lot of croissants, we don't have those birthday cakes like here (typically they are fancier cakes with no icing), sandwiches typically come on a baguette (so more like subs I guess), portions are smaller. They also have a HUGE selection of yogurts and refrigerated puddings compared to the US. Seriously, it's insane. And I miss that the most. And cheese always comes before dessert... we always had a plate dedicated to cheese in the fridge.

I'm American and in my 30's. When I was growing up in the Midwest basically everyone I knew ate like this, except for a handful of people I knew who ate "weird healthy food" and that really just meant a lot more variety in their salads and huge glasses of whole milk for children & preteens at dinnertime.

Breakfast:
Pop Tarts, Toaster Strudel (frozen pastry with a packet of frosting to squeeze on top after toasting), or sugary breakfast cereal with milk.
For "health nuts", a less sugary cereal (Cheerio's or Kix for example) with skim or lowfat milk.

Lunch:
School lunch like turkey & noodles, canned peas, a huge yeast roll, and strawberry gelatin with bits of canned pineapple inside, and a carton of chocolate 2% milk.
OR
Wonder (white) bread with bologna, cheese & mustard, small bag of Doritos, and a Kudos bar (glorified chocolate bar) and a juice box

Dinner:
Hamburger Helper, salad of iceberg lettuce with chopped tomato and ranch dressing, slice of cake (from a mix) for dessert
OR
3-4 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut
OR
chili on top of spaghetti, frozen peas, big slice of garlic bread and a Dr. Pepper

Pretty horrendous.

Perfect! (I lived a bit further north than you though) We never had anything but sugar cereal for breakfast; pop tarts were expensive and Toaster Strudel didn't exist yet. Very occasionally on weekends, a "treat" like waffles, pancakes, french toast or eggs and bacon.

Don't forget those nasty fried "burritos" they put in school lunches! (and Kudos were not invented yet when I was a kid-- my sack lunch was a baloney and "cheese" on white bread with Miracle Whip, maybe an apple or fruit rollup, and Kool-Aid in my thermos) That's pretty spot-on though.

My dad was an a-hole and made my mom fry chicken almost every night though (pork chops or ham patties and *very* occasionally meat spaghetti otherwise), usually corn or green beans from a can, mashed potatoes and if we had dessert, probably jello or pudding.

I'm American and in my 30's. When I was growing up in the Midwest basically everyone I knew ate like this, except for a handful of people I knew who ate "weird healthy food" and that really just meant a lot more variety in their salads and huge glasses of whole milk for children & preteens at dinnertime.

Breakfast:
Pop Tarts, Toaster Strudel (frozen pastry with a packet of frosting to squeeze on top after toasting), or sugary breakfast cereal with milk.
For "health nuts", a less sugary cereal (Cheerio's or Kix for example) with skim or lowfat milk.

Lunch:
School lunch like turkey & noodles, canned peas, a huge yeast roll, and strawberry gelatin with bits of canned pineapple inside, and a carton of chocolate 2% milk.
OR
Wonder (white) bread with bologna, cheese & mustard, small bag of Doritos, and a Kudos bar (glorified chocolate bar) and a juice box

Dinner:
Hamburger Helper, salad of iceberg lettuce with chopped tomato and ranch dressing, slice of cake (from a mix) for dessert
OR
3-4 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut
OR
chili on top of spaghetti, frozen peas, big slice of garlic bread and a Dr. Pepper

Pretty horrendous.

Perfect! (I lived a bit further north than you though) We never had anything but sugar cereal for breakfast; pop tarts were expensive and Toaster Strudel didn't exist yet. Very occasionally on weekends, a "treat" like waffles, pancakes, french toast or eggs and bacon.

Don't forget those nasty fried "burritos" they put in school lunches! (and Kudos were not invented yet when I was a kid-- my sack lunch was a baloney and "cheese" on white bread with Miracle Whip, maybe an apple or fruit rollup, and Kool-Aid in my thermos) That's pretty spot-on though.

My dad was an a-hole and made my mom fry chicken almost every night though (pork chops or ham patties and *very* occasionally meat spaghetti otherwise), usually corn or green beans from a can, mashed potatoes and if we had dessert, probably jello or pudding.

lol...I'm glad you could relate (and a bit sorry for you too hehe). But we're the same age (within a year) so I think Kudos and Toaster Strudel did exist ;-)

Lunch...I almost forgot about thermoses. Filled with Kool-Aid, Hawaiian Punch, or super salty Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup of course...in your plastic or metal character themed lunchbox! hehe

I remember being jealous of a friend of mine because her packed lunches always included a can of regular Coke (I was drinking diet by age 6), kiwifruit (EXOTIC to my 1980s child self) and string cheese. I thought string cheese was the best thing EVER!

Chiming in from New Jersey, USA!

**Disclaimer - I was not born here! My husband was, and he was dumbfounded when I didn't know what it was.**

Taylor Ham, or Pork Roll, if you will. (But really - Taylor Ham.) It's really super spiced pork roll, and it's the most amazing thing ever made for breakfast. Even better than bacon, IMO. EVERYWHERE serves it. But of course, it's super unhealthy, haha. You fry it up and toss it in a breakfast sandwich or just eat it plain, but it's sooo good. (If you get super lucky and find it outside NJ, near the bacon, try it. You won't regret it as a treat.)